Common English Bible with the Apocrypha Review

If you have been following my blog for awhile you may of noticed that I having been quoting a lot from a new Bible translation, the Common English Bible. This blog tour has been going on for the last 3 months.

I chose the Common English Bible with the Apocrypha for my review. The Bible is black leather type material. The binding is excellent. I hate it when I get a book and the binding is looking like it is going to come apart quickly. Easy to carry, as it is not a large bulky bible as you would think with it having the Apocrypha in it. Having the convenience of a not so bulky Bible does make the print smaller. I would say that it is a 9 font.  The back of the CEB has 9 colorful, easy to read maps. The paper is a good quality with a silver edge around the ends.

They are adding many new editions with lots of choices of the Common English Bible, including a Reference Bible and a Daily Companion Bible, they have the CEB available for  you're  E-Reader. You’ll find information here. Reference books for the Common English Bible are available, such as a dictionary and an over-sized map guide (with National Geographic maps!). I suspect that the list will keep growing so check out the site often.

I used the CEB for our various studies at my congregation and during my daily personal reading. First and foremost let me say that I am no scholar when it comes to studying God's word.

What do I think of the Common English Bible translation?

First off let me say that I am a King James or a Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern reader. I love the beauty of the KJV, and I am just use to it. It has been the Bible I have always read it as long as I can remember. I have several other versions which I also enjoy. I am not so dogmatic that I don't consider other versions viable. I can only think of one version that I can honestly say that I do not care for.

You won't have any thees or thou's  or the old English wording in the CEB.

I like having the Apocrypha in my Bible. As I enjoy reading it from time to time. You can read my thoughts on the Apocrypha here. I don't see repeating myself in this post.

Pros:

This is an easy to read version. Much to my surprise it has a lot of the translation elements as the Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern besides the Hebrew names and a few minor things. That surprised me in the translation. The CEB words had a lot of verbatim to the CJB. Our congregation teachers use the CJB during our various studies and I would say that it flowed easily with it as far as wording is concerned. Which the KJV doesn't.

The words are contemporary and very easy to read the version is easily discernible for most people. You won't be intimidated by the wording in the Common English Bible. That is an excuse I have heard many people use as why they don't read the Bible? So no more excuses! It reads easily and flows naturally. I can see this having an appeal to the younger generation who aren't stuck on a translation they have grown up with. Overall,  this new version is pretty accurate reading of the Biblical text. They don't paraphrase the CEB or water it down. It is a good version for all age groups.

Cons:

The font size is a little smaller than I would prefer. I think if I had a choice I would rather have a little bigger book with around 12 font. I am getting older and my eyes seem to get tired quickly with smaller print.

 I find that I am old school as the Common English Bible uses English or Western idiom as I like to call it instead of eastern mind set idiom. In my opinion I would rather see the Bible from the culture that it came from not a Western culture. I feel that when you are reading God's word you can fully understand it when you look at it in a whole from the eastern mind set. 

One example the CEB uses is "human or human one" instead of "man" or "Son of Man" and "Behold" as "Look" are translated. I prefer "Son of Man" rather than " Human One". In my mind "Behold" is a much stronger word than "Look" Behold seems to have stronger implications in it and seem to be have more meaning to it. Some of the passages related to gender seem to leave gender specific out of it. Making it more gender friendly or gender neutrality. For instance, one verse in Luke now reads "brother or sister" instead of just "brother." In my quest to learn Biblical Hebrew I find that Hebrew words are suppose to be gender specific. Biblical Hebrew is either masculine or feminine. So I don't care for gender friendly movement especially concerning God's word. In other words, the Common English Bible is a little more politically correct.

So would I recommend the Common English Bible?

Yes, I would. There are some things that bug me as I mentioned. Overall, God's word is powerful and if the CEB gets people reading His word.~ then I can live with the translation. I mean the salvation issue is still clear for someone to accept Yeshua/Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Sin isn't watered down in this translation. You can still see His message clearly in how we live for Him, what He wants from us, and how much He loves and desires us to spend time with him.

I will continue reading the Common English Bible myself along with my beloved KJV and CJB.

    § Website http://CommonEnglishBible.com

§ Twitter http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible 

§ Facebook Group Page http://facebook.com/groups/CommonEnglishBible

     § Facebook Bible Like Page http://facebook.com/LiveTheBible 

     *   Video http://vimeo.com/CommonEnglishBible 

 This book has been provided to me my by B&B Media Group, Inc Publisher free of charge and in no way was I asked to give a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.